But the album release is next Spring I think they're shooting for. I think they're playing like Brazil, South Africa, maybe Australia. (2011)Ī - I don't think they're doing any United States shows. Q - I've heard they're doing shows in November and December. Now with the layoff of Aerosmith the last, I want to say yeah, I mean they did play last summer, but they haven't been very active on the tour circuit this past, say nine months. It's a little different for those guys than it is for us. They still play and command up to $25,000 a show. The Machine, which was a Pink Floyd (tribute), they're still around. Q - What year were some of these bands grossing half a million dollars?Ī - It was the early '90s. Just going from playing in someone's basement to being a national act. It was like being in a national act, like immediately. So, to be taken in by that agency and going from just a local cover band to all of a sudden being put on the road doing shows up and down the East Coast, I just turned twenty-one years old and it was pretty insane. Some of those bands were grossing half a million dollars a year back then.Ī - Yeah. Those guys were kind of like the pioneers of the whole tribute thing around this area. They were handling some big acts of the day back in the early '90s like The Machine and this Led Zeppelin band Physical Graffiti. Q - Did the agency specialize in the booking of tribute acts?Ī - Yeah. So, they hired me into the band and like a month later we hooked up with an agency based out of Connecticut and then we just changed the name at that point to Draw The Line and went full-blown with the Aerosmith tribute. We could just focus on Aerosmith." So, we got to talking about it and we all seemed like we wanted to head in the same direction. I said "Well, you know what? I'll come down and check it out and see what happens." So I come down and went for the audition and they said "Oh my God! You look just like the guy! We could make this a full-blown tribute if you wanted to come in. Someone got a hold of me and said "you should come down and audition for this band" because I was a musician and I wasn't in a band at the time. They were like a Classic Rock cover band playing Aerosmith, Guns 'n' Roses, Rolling Stones, Black Crowes. There was a band that already existed in the area called Mass Production. You could not grow up around here not liking Aerosmith. I wasn't a huge Aerosmith fan back in high school. I never thought of myself as looking like him. Q - When did lightning strike and you said I'm going to get an Aerosmith tribute band together?Ī - When I was in high school I used to get teased a lot that I looked like him. I walk in and I'm close enough where they can get a glimpse of me and they get nervous. If I walk into a club and see the bands onstage, I'm going to check out a friend's band or just going to see some band I haven't seen before.
Q - When the fun really begins is when you step into a bar.Ī - (laughs) I think sometimes it makes people nervous. Some people would be, I want to say aggravated with it after awhile, but it's what I do and I might as well have some fun with it. Then when I tell people I'm not him, I'm not related to him, they go, 'You look just like him" and I go "really? I don't see it." I try to make a joke of it at this point because you can't be upset by it. They they'll get up close, "Are you related to him?" It's been going on for a long time. I'll do it with a baseball cap on and sweat pants and people would still do a double take. Q - You mean when you're walking down the street, going into a restaurant or going into a grocery store?Ī - I can be pumping gas. Do people mistake you for Steven Tyler when you're offstage?Ī - You know, I've been doing this for twenty years and I cannot go a day without somebody thinking that I'm him or mistaking me for him, even if I have my hair under a hat or I haven't shaved and dressed in grubby clothes, it always seems to happen on a daily basis. Q - Neill, it must be fun these days to be Steven Tyler because of his high visibility on American Idol. Draw The Line's Neill Byrnes talked with us about the group and what it's like to look so much like Steven Tyler. Gary James' Interview With Neill Byrnes Of Areosmith Tributeĭraw The Line is the only officially endorsed Aerosmith Tribute Band in the world! Based out of Boston, Massachusetts, the group has taken their act all over the world. Gary James' Interview With Neill Byrnes Of Aerosmith Tribute Draw The Line Interview
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